The present invention relates to a tire bundling machine and more particularly to a new and improved tire bundling apparatus wherein automotive or truck tires are stacked in a vertically disposed stack with their vertical axis being coaxial, containing a predetermined number of tires. The tires are compressed axially and then bundled together into a unitary stack.
The bundling of tires has been done by apparatus which includes an automotive stacker which receives the tires to be stacked from a conveyor means. The tires are stacked at the same level as the conveyor, however, as the tires are placed onto the stacker, means are provided to progressively lower or raise the stack by one tire width to facilitate the reception of another tire. In this apparatus where the stack is lowered progressively each time a tire is added to the stack, it is necessary to provide a pit or some means to accommodate the stack. In either instance of raising or lowering the stack, auxiliary equipment is required which is bulky and expensive.
Another design for the bundling of tires is to receive them in a horizontally stacked position as where the axis is horizontally extending. In these instances, it was proposed to automate the receiving of the tires, indexing them automatically into stacking condition and then provide automatic bundling machines to tie them into a unitary whole. The principle disadvantage of such automatic bundling machines is their enormous cost and that it is difficult to justify the cost of such a machine except on an automatic production line.
The present invention is directed to a bundling machine which costs one-tenth to one-twentieth of that of the above type machines. The present invention is designed to handle all sizes of tires with provision for bundling or strapping the stack of tires quickly and efficiently. The low cost of the present machine justifies its installation at locations where bundling of tires is done on an intermittent basis as well as at a production line run.